Winter Squirrels

Another cold day, the fields at the end of the garden are still flooded, but at least the pond had no ice on it this morning.

There are less small birds about now. I have noticed a dwindling in numbers the last week or two despite topping up the bird table all day long.

The squirrels have been very hungry also, although I realize they hide food for later. Today, I peeled and chopped up apples for the blackbirds and thrushes. Tits and robins also like these. It was interesting to watch the squirrels. They picked over the peelings and flesh, choosing to eat the cores instead. I suppose the pips contain protein amongst other nutritious things.


One little chap was very busy all morning. Finally after nearly three hours, he climbed a tree clutching a piece of food. 25 feet up on a bare branch he sat to eat it. When he had finished, he lay down along the branch and went to sleep.

Although it is not icy today, there is no sun and a bitingly cold wind, yet he slept high up in a leafless tree on a bare branch. How did he keep warm? It must be due to his thick fur coat and also other factors like his high metabolic rate.

I did some internet research and apparently studies on summer and winter squirrels show that winder squirrels have significantly lower levels of bile acids and lecithin in their liver as compared to all other groups. A difference between squirrels that hibernate and those that do not may be gall bladder contractibility. Fasting normally results in suppression of gall bladder contractibility. The studies were on American squirrels, but I suspect they would prove much the same if done on our English grey squirrels.

Moorhen in Pond

The moorhen continues to enjoy the garden, and now the ice on the pond is melting, spending much time in the water.

The Pigeons’ Revenge

Last autumn two new squirrels came to the garden, built a dray high up in the silver birch. They constructed it almost directly on top of a pigeons’ nest. Today I watched the pigeons taking revenge. They mated four times, each time right after the last, all on top of the squirrels’ dray, which has been left looking decidedly squashed and sad.

Goldfinches and Lemon Balm Seeds

We are daily visited by a charm of goldfinches. They are so pretty, and are drawn to the garden mainly because of the lemon balm seeds. Every summer, I forget how valuable these seeds are to the goldfinches, and because these plants seed so well, I pull many of them up. I do this with great satisfaction, if only I could be mindful of the value of lemon balm seeds to the goldfinches, then I would have much more pleasure during this time of year and the birds would certainly profit more.

Striking Looking Birds

Snow still thick on the ground; I watched a covey of eight red-legged partridges in the orchard at the end of our garden. They are a striking looking bird and watching them through binoculars I wished we saw them more often.

The moorhen is back in the garden, this year on its own – another striking looking bird. We are delighted every winter to see it for a few months wandering all over the garden. This year it is pecking at any long stray tufts of grass poking through the snow. It also eats the food put out for the birds.

Winter Scene

Another trip to Reading today: it is a freezing cold day with thick, heavy, white frost on the verges. Coming from Gilston on the A414 we see flooded fields turned into frosty ice rinks. Clouds of seagulls hovering low over the land.


Red berberis berries and white snow berries line the road at one point. The deciduous trees stand stark and bare the ground underneath carpeted by a thick, crisp cover of frosted white leaves. We pass a hungry heron pacing a field with frozen soil bereft of stream, and wonder what he will find to eat. Winter sunlight imperceptibly greening the frozen grass. Horses standing woodenly on white frost covered legs against bare hedges catching the warmth of weak sunbeams.

A Frosted Blackbird

It’s very cold outside, the sun comes up moon white every morning into a silvery sky, last night’s sunset was surprisingly red, so perhaps today the sun will shine and gently warm some of the creatures living outside and enduring this freezing spell of weather.

It’s 9am: the thin white sunlight brightens the snow on the lawn and in the fields, while deepening the shadows. A pair of squirrels is busy collecting food from the bird table and storing it in the woodpile, a jay sitting on the lower branch of the birch tree, watches them, as yet he has made no attempt to sabotage their winter store. My guess is that he is the one that has already been eating food straight from the bird table, and is now marking where his next meal will come from. Another squirrel is sitting fatly, his fur all puffed out, on the bird table. He has eaten his fill, stored much, and is obviously not interested in the rest of the food, other than to guard it from the birds with a view to keeping it for himself.

A skein of Canada geese just flew noisily above the garden, I love the way their calls announce their coming, making it possible to fully enjoy the sight of their flight formation. The fieldfares are here at last! Only four but such a welcome sight, yesterday I watched a solitary redwing feeding in the same overgrown but many-berried cotoneaster that feeds the fieldfares today.


Early this morning, I watched two blackbirds tussling over food on the bird table; one of them was lightly brushed with frost and must have had a very cold overnight perch. I wondered at the metabolism of birds and knew that if that was us subjected to these sub-zero temperatures we would likely have succumbed to hypothermia, but here less than fifteen inches away was this striking black and bright yellow-billed chap, perky as ever and fighting for his rights on the food table.

Happy new year, not only to you but to all my garden friends outside who give so much pleasure and ask for so little in return.